Both of them witches: Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in ”Wicked: For Good’.
WICKED: FOR GOOD **** (137 minutes) PG
Yes, Part Two is better than Part One – and not just because it’s shorter.
With all the heavy lifting taken care of in last year’s marvellous epic, Wicked: For Good zips along at a cracking pace as good witch Glinda (Ariana Grande) and wicked -sorry – allegedly wicked witch Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) find themselves tangled up in a series of complicated situations, not the least of which is rivalry over the romantic attentions of Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey), the guard commander for the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum).
Big, splashy, deeply felt and gorgeous to behold, the film unfurls as a hands-down winner, a new-era love letter to old-school studio musicals.
If anything, the deep love director Jon M Chu has for the musicals of yore is even more evident here as songs propel the narrative in sequences that are in equal parts touching and spectacular. And bless him for bringing the soiree in at more than 20 minutes leaner that Part One.
Visually, there are some truly stunning sequences, the Oscar-attention-getter being the single shot number where the camera glides into and out of mirror reflections as the admittedly thinner-than-usual Grande sings her heart out.
With the hated Elphaba trying to help the banished animals of Oz while Glinda enjoys the comforts of wealth and community adoration, there develops an appreciable and well-sustained tension between the two, with Glinda even pulling off a pretty hefty bitch move. Daring as it is to say, the two leads chime in with even better performances.
Though there’s a lot of obviously digital work on display, the film’s giant production values sport a distinctly analog feel as characters walk, run, dance and fly dance through splendidly designed physical sets.
Still, the digital visuals are often amazing and, in one significant regard, fuse beautifully with Wicked’s cherished themes of inclusion and diversity as we see the simian-positive casting of Caesar and the rest of the gang from Rise of the Planet of the Apes as the legendary winged primates of Oz. Magnificent.
FOOTNOTE: As was the case with Wicked, the pre-release publicity tour by Grande and Erivo have attracted plenty of amusing viral attention with their touchy-touchy over-affectionate presentations before the cameras.
Along with the usual hand-holding and subtle caressing of fingers, this time around they’ve also created a memorable moment where, mid-interview, Erivo suddenly began adjusting Grande’s necklace in a very up-close and personal manner. Talk about a close working relationship.
Nothing wrong with it, of course. Grande stuff. It’s all about love, folks. The rest is conversation.
SISU: ROAD TO REVENGE ***1/2 (88 minutes) MA
After the big-screen bland outs of Predator: Badlands and The Running Man, Sisu: Road to Revenge lands at just the right time to remind us what good action is.
Set in the dank aftermath of World War 2, our beloved Finnish anti-hero Aatami Korpi (Jorma Tommila) returns, angrier than ever yet hoping to instill some measure of peace to his damaged life.
Planning to rebuild the modest home of his slaughtered family on the safe side of the new Soviet border, he loads the original lumber onto the back of a sturdy truck and hits the road.
Unfortunately for him, but great for us, Igor Draganov (Stephen Lang from Avatar), the man who killed his family, is in hot pursuit, tasked by his Russian boss to finish the job by killing Korpi. Easier tasked than done, as it turns out.
Essentially an elongated truck chase movie, director Jalmari Helander – who made the brilliant Christmas movie Rare Exports with Tommila – stages plenty of inventive, well-staged mayhem as Korpi speeds towards his new home with his precious load of lumber.
Most important to note is Helander’s defiant belief that, unlike so much action-movie mulch, you don’t have to cut every half-second; you can actually hold a shot for a few moments to build tension and even a bit of style.
With very little dialogue, the over-the-top soiree of Sisu 2 is proficiently dispatched with marvellous straight-faced conviction.
Diehard lovers of action are sure to love the loopy offerings here. And look at the running time. Less than 90 minutes! Is such movie-making efficiency even legal?